


Pearls

by absolutelyCancerous (cal1brations)



Category: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Clumsiness, Ear Piercing, M/M, Male Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-01
Updated: 2013-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-23 04:15:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/617969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cal1brations/pseuds/absolutelyCancerous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Cloud, please. I'm a natural-born piercer; I did my ears myself!"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pearls

“Is it gonna hurt?”

“Nah, it just feels like a bee sting, really. Doesn’t even hurt as much as _that_ , actually!”

You don’t really know why you even agreed to this.

“This” being sitting in Zack’s bathroom, sitting on the lid of the toilet with your bangs pinned back with an amount of bobby pins, whose origins you are not quite ready to ask about. Zack is hunched over in front of you, with a pen, and currently marking out two even little dots on your ears, making sure they’re even and all. He makes you stand in front of the mirror before anything, though, pointing to each mark.

“Like that? Or do you want me to do it again?”

You feel your earlobes (one last time, unscathed and all) and nod in confirmation, “Like that is fine.”

You sit back down and Zack picks up one of the many ice cubes he dumped into the plugged-up sink, moving to your left earlobe and presses it there, almost _painfully_ hard. You grimace, and of _course_ , Zack notices the action and laughs.

“It makes it easier to pierce,” he explains, “and it’ll hurt less.”

“Oh.”

“Still wanna do it?” He’s moving the ice cube away and pressing a cork up against the back of your ear, reaching to the sink again to pick up the needle from the small dish of hot water he left it sitting in earlier. A pearl earring, nonetheless.

“Just--do it fast,” you mumble, and clench your hands into tight fists in your lap. Zack cocks your head to the side, so he has better access to the spot he’s going to pierce, and places the needle against your skin. It’s cool, and you admit, you _feel_ pretty cool that a First Class actually wants to stab you in the earlobes, for no other reason than _he thought you’d look neat with earrings_.

Your heart races, because this is just about as thrilling as hoping on the train to first enlist, and Zack catches the nervous smile that curls your lips—mostly because he can feel your cheeks moving in such a smile because he’s got his arm against the side of your face.

“Alright, on three,” he warns, and your feel the needle against your ear get a little more precise, more serious, because _he’s really going to do it_.

“One…”

He presses the cork tighter, and your teeth catch on the inside of your lip.

“Two!”

Your ear feels like it’s on **fire**.

“Spike—stop _moving_ , you’re gonna rip it out!”

“ _You said on three_!”

You can feel him pulling the needle out, pulling the cork away from the back of your ear, and that hurts a good bit too, earning a few curses and hisses between your teeth. Zack, of course, smiles like the champion he is, and wets a cotton ball in order to wipe your piercing of any blood.

(Which there is a nice bit of. Gross.)

“See? That wasn’t so bad!”

“That was _awful_ ,” you correct, grimacing at his grin and rubbing water off of your cheek. Zack snorts at your tone, helps you up and points to the pearl earring perched in your now-red earlobe, proud of his work.

“Looks nice, right?”

You nod, because even though it looks pretty swollen, it does look nice. You sit back down, and Zack goes to cleaning the needle and your other earlobe. You kind of don’t want him to do the other side, just because your ear actually still aches, but he manages to get you to sit and take another stab through the ear to get the second pearl in snug.

While he’s cleaning up (while you look over your new favorite features) you ask him how much you owe him for the earrings and the whole piercing itself, because you made _sure_ to bring some gil to pay him. But Zack just unplugs the sink to let the ice run down the drain and laughs, shaking his head.

“We’re _friends_ , Spike, c’mon—you really think I’m gonna make you pay for that?”

“It wasn’t like you _had_ to or anything, though.”

“Exactly.” He punches your shoulder, making sure he doesn’t put much brawn into the action. “I did it because I _wanted_ to. Get over it, man!”

He treats you to dinner, too. Zack’s great.

.-._.-._.-.

It’s the next morning and Zack is the **worst**.

You wake up, like usual, and get up to go to the bathroom, like usual, and after washing your hands and face, like usual, when you look in the mirror, it is _not_ usual.

Your left earring is perfectly fine, not even swollen or anything! The right, however, _isn’t even **there**_. Only a dark red scab remains in the area where the pearl used to sit, and you sigh, assuming it’d fallen out in your sleep. Though, once reaching a hand up to feel the scab, mostly to mourn the loss of the earring, there’s…. still a back. A post is still there, sticking out of your ear.

You turn your earlobe up in the mirror, to make sure what you’re feeling with your fingers is what’s actually there, and when you see the little glimmer of the long, silver post sticking out of the back of your ear, you grimace.

The earring is _inside your goddamn ear_.

You throw on the cleanest clothes you can find in your absolute panic and nearly _sprint_ out the door, typing out a blatantly-furious message on your PHS to a certain dark-haired fighter.

.-._.-._.-.

After lots of blood and curses and nearly half a roll of paper towels, Zack manages to remove the earring without you passing out or any other catastrophes. He offers to re-pierce it, when it’s all better and healed, but you quickly refuse such treatment.

One pearl looks alright, too, you decide, holding a paper towel carefully up to your ear as you hunch over the lip of the sink.


End file.
